Odisha: Focusing on a HR-centric development strategy

Sustainable and inclusive growth will be ensured through skill-building

Fearing lop-sided growth owing to rampant exploitation of natural resources, the Odisha government has decided on a human resource-based strategy to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.

"There are certain pitfalls associated with a development strategy based entirely on natural resources. We need to have a balanced strategy. Else, we may have a development that degrades the environment without commensurate benefits," state Chief Secretary G C Pati said at the second session of the Business Standard Odisha Round Table-2014.

The theme of the session was 'Road Ahead for Odisha: Challenges and Opportunities'.

"A human resource-based strategy is the key to Odisha's future growth. Education and social factors will be very important. The emphasis has to be on skill development, technical education and placement links," he said.
 
Speaking on the issue of forest clearance impeding growth, R K Sharma, principal secretary (forest & environment), said, "The forest sector is a highly regulated sector and there are some time-consuming procedures. We are making efforts to reduce the time taken for compliance with these procedures."

Sharma admitted that projects are being delayed owing to forest clearances: "Of the total time needed for obtaining forest clearance, two-thirds or more is lost in getting compliance under the Forest Rights Act, and this includes getting consent from the palli sabhas."

However, Odisha has fared better than other states on the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) front, as the state's R&R policy was the best in the country on various counts, Sharma said.

Besides forest clearances, industries, especially mineral-based industries, are grappling with the problem of raw material availability.

The crux, said G Srinivas, state steel and mines secretary, was to make raw material available at optimum prices.

"Scarcity of raw material erupts mainly due to reduction in production. The other issue is pricing. Most industries are finding it difficult to purchase the raw material at suitable prices," Srinivas said.

He assured industry that the raw material crisis would be over in the next six months: "We have approved a plan wherein our PSU, Odisha Mining Corporation's (OMC's) production will be ramped up to 20 million tonnes in the next three years. The state government has also come out with a resolution that 50 per cent of OMC's production will be reserved for state-based industries. The rest would be put to e-auction. This will assure raw material security in the state for five years."

Srinivas said that owing to regulatory issues, "initially, our feeling was that we could a hit of take up to 70 per cent on mining revenue. But due to efforts by the state government and favourable reports from the enquiry commission, our mining revenue has been impacted by 25-30 per cent only."

Subhrakant Panda, managing director, Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA), spoke on the challenges to industrial facilitation.

"One of the challenges we have as a nation is to move up on the index of ease of doing business. We have to look at ways to promote investment and the government and industry need to have a collaborative effort. Odisha is a harder state to do business in compared to other states, since the bulk of the industrialisation is mineral-based and the sector is passing through a phase of turmoil," he said.

Pati listed land acquisition as the other daunting challenge to industrialisation, and said the remedy lay in creation of land banks for industrial purposes. "We have to anticipate the kind of industries that will come up in Odisha so that we can keep the land ready and develop the necessary infrastructure," he explained.

Commenting on the land takeover riddle, Panda said, "Land is an emotive subject. We have to find ways to assure that the land loser is a long-term stakeholder in development." n